iCandy Interactive reveals Claw Stars June launch, records jump in cash receipts for March quarter

iCandy Interactive (ASX: ICI) plans to launch its Claw Stars game in June after a successful trial, with the company also posting a huge leap in cash receipts for the 2021 March quarter.

The early access trial for Claw Stars through Google Play has now been completed and hit a new high for the company’s game retention rates.

These reached 46% on day one and were 18% by day seven. This compares to retention rates for iCandy’s Masketeers: Idle has fallen trial which were 37% on day one and 8% on day seven.

According to iCandy, day one and day seven retention rates measure the users that return to the game on one day and seven days after the game has been installed.

“These two retention rates are closely watched within the mobile gaming industry as they are potential early indicators of a mobile game’s future monetisation metric,” the company explained.

In readiness for the June launch, iCandy has begun taking pre-orders and pre-registration for Claw Stars via the Apple App Store and Google Play. It has already received more than 78,000 pre-orders in the first week.

Masketeers spurs revenue growth

The positive news continued for iCandy with the company also revealing its cash receipts for the March quarter had risen 227% to $441,000 compared to $194,000 in Q1 2020.

iCandy attributed the higher cash receipts to the ongoing success of its Masketeers game.

To further increase its growth, iCandy has two partnership agreements with leading game publisher Ohayoo.

Under the deals, Ohayoo will localise, publish and market Masketeers in China. Ohayoo also has the exclusive global licence to publish iCandy’s other mobile game Rocky Rampage.

During the March quarter, iCandy said it had completed all of Ohayoo’s requirements regarding Masketeers and Rocky Rampage.

Masketeers is currently being trialled in China, while Rocky Rampage is due for a global release in mid-May.

Joint ventures, acquisitions and disposals

Also during the March quarter, iCandy’s joint venture subsidiary Sky Candy completed a online player versus player game prototype.

The prototype included 3D battle mechanics, with additional prototype development ongoing.

iCandy has also edged into the hyper-casual gaming space with the acquisition of Singapore-based Nextgamer.io for $1.29 million.

Nextgamer develops hyper-casual games, with sessions designed to sit within a three minute time frame.

iCandy says this type of game appeals to the modern digital consumer which has an “increasingly short attention span”.

In mid-February, iCandy disposed of its subsidiary iCandy Digital to RightBridge Ventures for $4.8 million.